Cisco claims that more than 20 mobile operator customers including Saudi Telecom (STC) are working with Cisco for their 5G action plans.

Beginning 2020, 5G connections will grow more than a thousand percent from 2.3 million in 2020 to over 25 million in 2021.

Cisco at the Mobile World Congress 2018 announced its 5G Now portfolio for service providers ready to go on their 5G roadmap.  

ALSO READ: Latest news from Mobile World Congress 2018

Nasser Al Nasser, chief operations officer, STC, said: “Our plans to advance our telecom infrastructure with programmability and automation will support a host of new services enabled by 5G spanning education, enterprise, health, IoT, recreation and tourism.”

The strategy of STC, a leading telecom operator in the Middle East, is to make investment in mobile networks to keep pace with the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 for a digital society that fosters growth in Saudi Arabia’s economy.

Cisco’s role in 5G

# Services: Planning for new 5G-enabled services Cisco can help deliver

# Infrastructure: Mapping the right 5G infrastructure to their needs

# Automation: Helping to make the mass network scaling for 5G simpler to manage, operate and secure

Yvette Kanouff, senior vice president, general manager, Service Provider Business, Cisco, said only Cisco has the services, infrastructure and automation portfolio to support our global customers with their 5G initiatives.”

Cisco said its 5G services promise to offer emerging new services at significantly faster speeds, expanded capacity and stronger coverage to accommodate the more than 27 billion connected devices expected on service provider networks by 2021.